Regional Cuisine - Goetta

Is regional the same as local?  I've been thinking about regional foods lately and why they have remained regional and not spread around the country like the people we meet.  Regional recipes seem to have an ethnic or cultural influence and be made with locally obtained ingredients.  Like goeduck in the Pacific Northwest, lobster rolls in New England, fried diamondback in Texas, and Rocky Mountain oysters in Montana...  but ok, I'm not going there.  For the most part, all of these regional foods are based on locally obtained ingredients, and that's great, Right?

There's a regional food that I grew up with that has always been a puzzle to me.  It's not based on any locally obtained ingredients or to my knowledge, any ethnic or cultural traditions.  I have wondered over the years why it has been such a well kept secret, where it got its start, its rather odd name, and why it has never escaped from its origin.

As a child, I stood by my Grandmother while she stirred a huge pot on the stove and we always had it as a sort of porridge that first night for dinner.  It was so tasty!

According to anything I can find on the internet, it originated in Cincinnati, Ohio in the late 1800's, of German-American heritage.  Well, I think that just means no one really knows, because my Grandfather was French and my Grandmother was Swedish.  Also, if you ask a person from Germany, they have never heard of it.  The internet also says it originated as a peasant dish to stretch out servings of meat.  I can somewhat picture this convenient logic, but I still don't totally believe that either, because when we make stew, we don't say it's to stretch out the meat.  I actually think they made it because it was delicious.  

I hope I've got your interest by now, because I'm going to share my age old secret recipe handed down from my Grandmother. Goetta (pronounced get-ah) is the regional food from Cincinnati that I'm talking about.  I also want to make sure that you understand that there is NO relationship to Scrapple.  Scrapple comes from the Pennsylvania area and is made with cornmeal and parts of pigs that were destine for the rendering plant.  There are NO similarities here.

GOETTA

1 to 2 pounds pork - as in a fresh pork shoulder or any lean pork 
1 to 2 pounds beef - as in a chuck or round or rump roast

Remove any obvious fat and brown the meat on all sides and then add 3-4 cups of water, a teaspoon of salt, and cook until fork tender.  (My grandmother cooked hers in a pressure cooker and that's what I do too.  About 45-55 minutes in the pressure cooker.)  No pressure cooker?  You can braise the meat in a crock pot on medium for 5-6 hours or in a covered dish in the oven 300-325 degrees for 2-3 hours.  
Braising requires that the meat be slow cooked in liquid until tender.  Add water as necessary to keep the meat from drying out and have lots of good juices.

Once tender, remove the meat from the juices and allow it to cool completely. You can even prepare the meat the day before and refrigerate.

In the photo above, I had actually cooked extra and reserved some of that for another recipe.  I finely diced about 11/2 pounds of each meat.

Once again, I'm going to give you an alternative to cooking this.  My Grandmother and I until just recently always cooked it in a big pot on the stove.  I've adapted my recipe to a crock pot method that takes a lot of the work out of it.

In a crock pot (or large, heavy bottomed pot on the stove top), add the chopped meat along with the following ingredients.

3 cups of organic steel cut oats ( these are knows as pinhead oats to the old timers)
6 cups of the broth from the meat plus water to make the 6 cups
2 medium onions diced finely
2-3 bay leaves
1 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
3 teaspoons salt - it's important to add enough salt or the oats will taste bland

Set the crock pot to high for the first 2 hours, stirring every hour and keeping the lid on.  At 2 hours, turn down to low and begin stirring every 20 minutes to half hour for another 2 hours.  Do not add additional liquid as you want it to be very thick. If it appears that it is getting too thick to stir, add only a small amount - 1/2 cup and stir in completely.  When finished, the oats should be tender and your spoon should be able to stand up in the center of the pot all by itself.

If you are doing this on the stove top, ignore all of the stirring instructions above and you will need to stir it every 10-15 minutes for the first couple of hours and more often as it thickens.  Your burner should be on low the whole time as this stuff wants to stick and burn quickly. You are also going to need to add more water because the frequent stirring will evaporate more.  Add up to an additional 2 cups of water, 1/2 cup at a time as needed.  Now you can probably see why the crock pot is so great for this.  In both methods, keep it covered with the lid unless stirring.

When the oats are tender and the entire pot is very thick, take it off the heat, remove the bay leaves, and spoon it into a couple of deep dishes to cool.  I use my rubber spatula to press it into bread pans.  Once cool, cover the pans and put one in the refrigerator and the other in the freezer.

If there's a little left over, add a pat of butter and enjoy it fresh... ummm! just like grandmother used to make.

Like I said, we used to always have a serving fresh for dinner and it's great that way, but the way it is most often prepared is the refrigerated loafs are sliced into 1/2 inch slices and fried.  (The crispy fried version is pictured at the top of this post.) Of course, I no longer fry it in the traditional bacon grease, but if you are into that, that's the way it used to be done.  I fry it in a skillet with a little organic olive oil.  It is most often served for breakfast as an accompaniment to eggs.  We used to have it for any meal with or without eggs.  A couple of slices of this and a salad make a healthy dinner as well.

The way I cook it, it has little fat, as the meat I use is lean and I fry it in very little olive oil.  It is made with organic whole grain oats, which are very good for you.  It's an old time comfort food for me.  I do hope you will enjoy it too.